reflect on the motives of Timothy's abstinence, or insinuate that it was unfitted for him in health or for men in general; but his language seems specially intended to guard against any encouragement to a common use of vinous liquors—against, in fact, the very treatment it has received from the advocates of tippling.

4. Nothing is plainer about this advice than that it was meant for Timothy alone, and for reasons personal to him—his stomach affection and frequent maladies. St Paul did not set up for physician-general to the Christian world in all ages, nor did he prescribe wine as a panacea for all the diseases that flesh is heir to. If the advice was given by commandment,' and not as an individual opinion, all its value was derived from particular knowledge of the case. Of such knowledge, however, modern drinkers are entirely destitute. They can only guess at the nature of the disease, and wish for the special remedy to be such wine as they like. But he who, for himself or others, prescribes a generic remedy for a generic disease—or, in plain English, makes an unknown complaint, and an unknown remedy recorded in antiquity, the ground of a modern prescription for a specific ailment, is rather a fool than a physician.

5. The advice itself would be received with filial respect by Timothy, and acted upon with an enlightened spirit. (1) He would use 'a little wine,' and as seldom as needs be; not for gratification, but for medicinal service. (2) He would have regard to the end, and not conclude that a medicine once prescribed was to be continued after it had answered its designed effect. (3) As oinos was the word used, he would feel at liberty to take oinos (wine) of any species that was most salutary, preferring, we may be sure, those kinds that were least exciting, and that ministered least to sensualism and public vice. It is by no means certain that he would even use an intoxicating sort of wine at all, for Pliny's account of wines (book xiv.) shows that some sorts in good repute were not fermented; and of adunamon ('without strength'), one of the artificial vina (wines), he expressly declares that it was given to invalids when the ordinary wines were deemed likely to be injurious. In book xxiii. chap. 26 he frankly remarks, that "to treat of the medicinal properties of each particular kind of wine would be labor without end, and quite inexhaustible; and the more so as the opinions of medical men are so entirely at variance upon the subject." Athenæus also speaks of the 'mild Chian' and the sweet Bibline.' He says, "The sweet wine (glukus), which among the Sicilians is called Pollian, may be the same as the biblinos oinos" (lib. i. chap. 56). Of the sweet Lesbian he says, "Let him take glukus, either mixed with water or warmed, especially that called protropos, as being very good for the stomach" (lib. ii. chap. 24).*

6. The bearing of this text upon the Temperance Reform can now be distinctly perceived:—(1) It does not condemn or discountenance abstinence from intoxicating liquor as a rule of life in health, or for the sake of health, much less where it is practiced from motives of benevolence and piety. (2) It does not sanction the use of intoxicating liquor by men in general, or by any class or individual in particular. It marks an exception to a rule; and since that exception had respect to

The Materia Medica of Dr A. Todd Thomson, London, has the following, as to the conditions for prescribing wine:-"The quantity to be given, and the proper period of exhibiting it, require to be regulated with much judgment. The quantity to be given depends entirely on the nature of the disease, and the intentions for which it is administered" (p. 715). Where health abounds, wine is altogether unnecessary" (p. 716). "In Syria, the juice of ripe grapes inspissated, is used in great quantities in diseases. It may be observed, that in infirmities dependent either upon excessive wear and tear, or upon some defective supply of the salts of the blood, pure wine (i. e. the juice of grapes, unfermented) is the very best restorer, since it is rich in digestible albumen, and in phosphoric acid and the alkaline carbonates. Dr Curchod, of the wein-cur at Vevey, also says that it restores digestion and acts beneficially in bilious affections.

a lifelong abstainer, it is applicable very indirectly, if at all, to others. As to habitual wine-drinkers, the law of parallelism would indicate that when they are ill, they should try abstinence from the liquor which at least has not preserved them from disease. If wine is good as a medicine, then, like other medicine, it must prove most beneficial to those who are least accustomed to it when in health. (3) As Timothy had abstained from wines of all kinds, fermented and unfermented, boiled and unboiled, diluted and neat, he may have complied with the apostolic prescription without consuming a drop of alcoholic liquor. Even if he partook of some weak alcoholic wine, and derived benefit, no general conclusion in favor of using alcohol even in disease-much less in health-could be philosophically deduced; and recent investigations have shown a great decrease in mortality where alcoholic liquors have been discarded from the treatment of the very diseases supposed to be best affected by their administration. Allowing-what is beyond proof that St Paul advised an abstainer to use a little alcoholic liquor as a medicine, the records of sophistry can hardly produce a match to the monstrous conclusion-" Therefore, alcoholic liquors of all sorts are fit to be habitually taken, by persons of all conditions, whether they are well or whether they are ill"!!

CHAPTER VI. VERSE 10.

For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

1. This passage has been strangely cited in opposition to the statement that strong drink is the source of much of the evil which afflicts and demoralizes Society. But no text of Scripture can disprove a fact open to universal observation; and it is doing dishonor to the Bible to bring it into even apparent collision with the experience of mankind.

2. There is a further misapplication of this verse in quoting it as if 'money' were referred to as the root of all evil, and not the love-of-money, which is expressed by one word in the original—philarguria. Hence there is no true parallel between money-which is the passive object of undue desire and abuseand strong drink, the physical action of which on the nerves and brain begets that craving and appetite for itself which is at once a taint to the body and a tyranny to the soul.

3. It may be strongly doubted whether the apostle intended to assert what the A. V. ascribes to him-that love of money (the amor sceleratus habendi of Ovid) is really the root of all evil. (Dr Hammond paraphrases—'what a deal of mischief.') Covetousness is certainly not the root of all moral evil, nor is all, or a major part of, human misery attributable to it. St Paul's words are―rhiza gar pantōn tōn kakōn, 'for covetousness is a root of all the evils '-i. e. of all the evils just mentioned in the previous verse,—but not the exclusive root of even these; a much more moderate proposition, and one confirmed by universal observation.

4. Not the least glaring illustration of the accursed love of mammon is painfully exhibited by the colossal and retail traders in alcohol. Except for this philarguria, that traffic would not exist. The retailers 'go into' the 'public house' trade to make a profit; many expect (to their disappointment) to gain a fortune; and the same inducement is the mainspring of the wholesale manufacturers and dealers. They may not intend to do harm, but though they see the infinite mischief inflicted, they

continue to trade in the waters of death. The effect upon themselves and their families is frequently deplorable. John Wesley said of the drink-dealers of his time, "All who sell spirituous liquors in the common way to any that will buy, are poisoners-general. They murder His [God's] subjects by wholesale, neither does their eye pity or spare. They drive them to hell like sheep; and what is their gain? Is it not the blood of these men? Who, then, would envy their large estates and sumptuous palaces? A curse is in the midst of them. Blood, blood is there; the foundation, the floor, the walls, the roof are stained with blood. And canst thou hope, O thou man of blood! though thou art clothed in scarlet and fine linen, and farest sumptuously every day-canst thou hope to deliver down the fields of blood to the third generation? Not so; for there is a God in heaven; therefore, thy name shall be rooted out, like as those whom thou hast destroyed, body and soul; thy memorial shall perish with thee." (Works, vol. vi. 129.)

THE

EPISTLE OF ST PAUL TO
ST PAUL TO TITUS.

CHAPTER I. VERSES 7, 8.

For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre; 8 But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate.

V. 7. NOT GIVEN TO WINE] Mee paroinon, 'not near wine' = not a banqueter. [See Note on 1 Tim. iii. 3.]

V. 8. SOBER] Sõphrona, ‘sober-minded.'
TEMPERATE] Enkratee, 'temperate '

=

self-restraining (as to the appetites) = abstinent. This word seems to answer to neephaleon in 1 Tim. iii. 3. [See Note on 1 Cor. ix. 25.1

CHAPTER II. VERSE 2.

That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience.

SOBER] Necphaleous, 'abstinent.' [See Note on 1 Thess. v. 6.]
TEMPERATE] Sophronas, 'sober-minded.'

These variations of translation in the English version are much to be regretted, since they hide the nice and just distinctions of the original, which point at once to a more comprehensive and more specific form of temperance than the world is willing to practice. These are, (1) the general virtue of temperance as self-restraint; (2) that moderation of the soul called 'patience,' or 'gentleness'; (3) that subjective virtue called sound-mindedness, compounded of right seeing and right willing; (4) the personal and specific practice of abstinence from things evil; and, therefore (5), the discountenancing of drinking-fashions and feasts. To confound all these under the vague and modern meaning of 'temperance,' is as absurd in criticism as it is injurious in morals.

3

CHAPTER II. VERSES 3-6.

The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love

4

their husbands, to love their children, 5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. 6 Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded.

V. 3. NOT GIVEN TO MUCH WINE] Mee oino pollo dedoulōmenas, 'not addicted to much wine.' W. H. Rule, D.D., in his Brief Inquiry,' admits—“ Grape-juice was chiefly known in antiquity as the casual drink of the peasantry; when carefully preserved, as the choice beverage of epicures. The Roman ladies were so fond of it that they would first fill their stomachs with it, then throw it off by emetics, and repeat the draught" (Wetstein in Acts ii. 13). We have referred to Lucian for ourselves, and find the following illustration:-"I came, by Jove, as those who drink gleukos, swelling out their stomach, require an emetic" (Philops. 39). [See Note on 1 Tim. iii. 8.]

V. 4. THAT THEY MAY TEACH THE YOUNG WOMEN TO BE SOBER] Hina sõphronizōsi tas neas, in order that they may cause the young women to be sober. minded.'

V. 5. TO BE DISCREET] Sophronas, 'sober-minded.'

V. 6. TO BE SOBER MINDED] Sophronein, 'to be sober-minded.

CHAPTER II. VERSES II-12.

For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.

SOBERLY] Sophronōis, 'sobermindedly.'

The apostle most appropriately and expressively connects the denial or suppression of wordly lusts with the design of living 'sober-mindedly, righteously, and devoutly in the present age.' The connection of intoxicating liquor with such worldly lusts and the absence of sober-mindedness, rectitude, and piety, is too prevalent and flagrant to be denied. The grace of God-the Divine favor embodied in the Divine precepts, and impressing their holy dictates on the heartis beautifully said to be 'teaching us' the denial of those lusts. Yet 'teaching' is too weak a rendering of paideuousa, which signifies 'training' or 'disciplining.' The office of Divine grace is not to sanction unsafe indulgence, and then prevent the natural consequences, but to train the soul to the avoidance of all illicit desires and fleshly tastes, and in short, of whatever is found in practice to interfere with the highest development of the Christian life. Though gross drunkenness never be exhibited, yet an appetite for alcohol may exist, pernicious to both body and soul. The lust for a little may be as truly sinful as the lust for a larger quantity.